“I’m just happy to be stretching my legs,” he said, in his godfather-high voice. “You come to talk to me for a reason?”

“To deal,” I said. I indicated a direction. “Not much time. Hear me out?”

We walked a few paces away. With the chaos and the max sec prisoners facing down Seir, there was enough volume that people wouldn’t be overhearing without sensitive ears.

Still, I’d have to keep those ears in mind. I knew Lung was out there, and he was Goddess’s left hand man at the moment.

“What’s the deal?” Coalbelcher asked.

“I did you a favor. I need something.”

“Something isn’t free.”

“I did you a favor,” I said, my voice tense.

“And that’s only good manners for a newcomer to my block. I like you, girl. Don’t make me change my mind. If you want something—”

The neon images the shaker had created before erupted skyward, a giant of flesh with a sea of snakes at his waist formed from dirt outlined in neon. Endbringer-sized.

“—you gotta give something. I’m being pretty generous as is, hearing you out, and in my assuming it’s not coincidence that other people got the Wardens and the bombs all stopped blinking.”

“My teammate. Our collective effort.”

“Great. I still want something. Convince me,” he smiled at me as he said it, meeting my irritation with sickly, black-spittle-between-the-teeth kindness.

“There’s a civilian with the Wardens. A pretty guy with a forehead curl here—” I gestured to indicate, “—was with them the last I saw. He led a group of late-teens, early-twenties guys.”

“Flense.”

“Fucking great, that’s not ominous at all. Flense, then. Her name is Natalie, she has a lot of inside information and connections. I need you to do for her what I did for you, in my roundabout way.”

“And?”

“And… you didn’t murder anyone, did you?”

“I had an unpaid ticket,” he said, sarcastic.

“I was going to offer you an exit—”

“We’re all getting an exit, girl. There’s no more prison, see?”

“With a bit more leeway and a helping hand in staying clear of Teacher’s control. Because that’s—that’s being brain dead and building ray guns or something for twenty hours a day, until he decides he needs your power.”

“You’re going to help me get free and clear, girl?”

“I was. But not if you’re a murderer. Not if you’re a rapist.”

“I wouldn’t be a boss if I was. I had a rival. They decided I didn’t get my second chance, came after me hard. I came after them harder. They played it up in court, said I went—”

A squealing interrupted him. The giant with a dress of worms was tearing chicken wire fence out of the ground. Metal scraped against metal.